Pascuas give back If you ask the Pascua family about their community service, the answers don't come easy. It's not that they don't volunteer. Rather, they sometimes have a hard time keeping track of all their work.
to Hawaii
Their focus now is to build
a center for FilipinosCIVIC CITIZENS
B.J. Reyes / breyes@starbulletin.com"We're hardly home," says family patriarch Roland.
Start with him. Roland Pascua, 51, is president of the San Nicolas Goodwill Foundation of Hawaii, a group that promotes relations among Filipinos in Hawaii, particularly those from Ilocos Norte.
Then there's his wife, Edith, 49. Until last month she was president of the Oahu Filipino Community Council, an umbrella organization of civic groups. Her visibility in the community led to a seat on the governor's Civil Defense Advisory Council.
Son Russell, 24, is president-elect of the Honolulu Filipino Junior Chamber of Commerce, the Jaycees.
Their daughter, Elaine, 31, isn't as involved in community service but takes care of things at the family's Waipahu home while raising her two children: 7-year-old Preston and 5-year-old Amber.The family's activities don't end there.
There's the C&V Ballroom Dance Group Kalihi -- Roland Pascua, president. The family has two Sunday night radio shows on KNDI-1270 AM. They help organize local pageants and parades. And on weekends the Pascuas volunteer to emcee at local weddings, festivals, baptisms, you name it.
But the hours spent on these endeavors are nothing compared to the time they devote to what they feel is their most important cause: the Filipino Community Center being built in Waipahu.
"Our No. 1 focus right now is the FilCom Center," said Edith. "We're so committed to it because they've tried so many times before but it failed. We don't want that happening again."
To that end, the family has poured much of its energy into fund-raising.
Roland and Edith chair the center's community relations committee, which meets every Thursday and solicits door to door on the first Saturday of each month. From 7:30 to 8:30 on Sunday nights, they keep the community appraised of FilCom Center developments through their radio show on KNDI.
Their efforts haven't gone unnoticed.
With the center expected to open next June, organizers say most of the center's fund-raising target of $13.8 million has been raised.
Organizers credit the grass-roots fund-raising effort for at least some of the success in attracting big donors such as the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, which contributed $3 million.
"A lot of large donors want to believe that there is grass-roots support," said Rose Churma, interim executive director of the FilCom Center. "I would think they would consider it a more viable project because there is that sense of ownership from a large group of people.
"The fact that there is that support from the community has been very helpful."
The Pascuas trace the roots of their community spirit to the days when Roland and Edith first arrived in Hawaii from the Philippines. Roland, from Ilocos Norte, came in 1967. His future wife arrived from Ilocos Sur the following year. They met through a cousin of Edith's and married in 1969.
Roland worked at a soda bottling company before attending New York Technical Institute to get his degree in electrical engineering technology. He then spent 22 years in the Pepsi-Cola Hawaii service department before going into business for himself.
Today, when they're not volunteering, he and his son run Roland's Vending & Refrigeration Service, specializing in sales, repairs and maintenance of commercial refrigeration and vending machines. Edith is a publishing supervisor at Verizon Hawaii.
The family says living in Hawaii -- first in Kalihi, then in Waipahu -- has given them the chance to make a comfortable living for themselves.
"We wanted to give back to the community," said Edith. "When we came here, we were so poor. We really didn't have anything. When we were able to give back, to do community service, especially in building the FilCom Center, that's when we really got involved."